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Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15 (initial production)
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Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15 (initial production)

The original swept-wing MiG — a Soviet copy of the Rolls-Royce Nene and a heavy cannon armament · First flight 1947 · In service 1949

Mikoyan and Gurevich's I-310 prototype first flew on 30 December 1947, powered by a British Rolls-Royce Nene. The production MiG-15 used the Klimov RD-45F, a Soviet copy of the Nene, and the first production aircraft flew on 31 December 1948; the type entered Soviet service in 1949. Factories in Kuibyshev, Novosibirsk and Moscow built 1,344 of this first version.

Its 35-degree swept wing and heavy armament — one 37 mm and two 23 mm cannon, meant for shooting down bombers — set it apart from the straight-winged jets then flying in the West. The prototype reached 1,042 km/h at 3,000 m.

When MiG-15s appeared over Korea in November 1950 they outclassed the straight-winged UN day fighters, and the USAF hurried the F-86 Sabre to the theatre. The basic MiG-15 was also built under licence as the Lim-1 in Poland (227) and the S-102 in Czechoslovakia (821), before production everywhere moved to the improved MiG-15bis.

Gallery
Lim-1 '712' (c/n 1A-07012), a Polish licence-built basic MiG-15, at the Polish Aviation Museum, Kraków, 2013
Lim-1 '712' (c/n 1A-07012), a Polish licence-built basic MiG-15, at the Polish Aviation Museum, Kraków, 2013Alan Wilson from Stilton, Peterborough, Cambs, UK · CC BY-SA 2.0
Czechoslovak Aero S-102 '1720' (c/n 231720), later converted to MiG-15SB standard, in the Kbely aviation museum, Prague, 2012
Czechoslovak Aero S-102 '1720' (c/n 231720), later converted to MiG-15SB standard, in the Kbely aviation museum, Prague, 2012Alan Wilson · CC BY-SA 2.0
Same family

Other MiG-15 variants

Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15bis
◎ MIKOYAN-GUREVICH
Mikoyan-Gurevich

Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15bis

Soviet UnionThe main production MiG-15 — the VK-1 engine, better airbrakes and the version that dominated MiG Alley
Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15UTI
◎ MIKOYAN-GUREVICH
Mikoyan-Gurevich

Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15UTI

Soviet UnionThe two-seat trainer that taught a generation of Eastern-bloc jet pilots — and the MiG-15 most often still flying
MiG-15 licence builds (Czech S-102/S-103/CS-102, Polish Lim-1/Lim-2, Chinese J-2/JJ-2)
◎ MIG-15
Mikoyan-Gurevich

MiG-15 licence builds (Czech S-102/S-103/CS-102, Polish Lim-1/Lim-2, Chinese J-2/JJ-2)

Soviet UnionMiG-15s made outside the USSR — Aero in Czechoslovakia, WSK-Mielec in Poland and Shenyang in China